Photo Gallery

Kong Lin (Forest of Confucius) (5th century BC onward)

The Confucian Forest, ‘Forest of the Exalted Sage’ or Confucian Family Cemetery has been the historic burial ground of the Kong family for over 2000 years and reflects an almost uninterrupted continuity of almost eighty generations. Members of the clan are still buried there today. Located several kilometers north of Qufu and the Confucian Temple and Mansion complexes, the forest covers an area of almost 200 hectares (500 sq. acres) and is enclosed by a 3 meter high and 5 meter thick wall that is over 10 (or 7?) km (over 6 mi, or almost 4.5 ?, mi) in length. Statistical statements about the forest, as suggested here, are often in conflict. The forest is China’s largest and oldest clan cemetery.

In many ways the forest is both an ancient and historic botanical garden and, as one writer has suggested, “a walking tour into the Chinese past.” There is a broad diversity of trees, since reportedly each Confucian student brought representative examples from his own birthplace. Others added to the numbers as acts of veneration or because of imperial or other edicts. As a result the forest contains perhaps 20,000 (or 100,000?) varieties of trees, many dating from the Song period.

Throughout the centuries, however, followers also erected numerous memorials and other structures in honor of Confucius and his followers in the forest. On 13 occasions various emperors have renovated or constructed buildings. During the dynastic periods from the Han through the Qing disciples and leaders constructed--in addition to over sixty halls and pavilions--sculptures, archways, stele, and literally countless numbers of tombstones (estimates suggest over 100,000 Kong relatives are buried there) and mounds indicating locations of long-forgotten graves that link the past to the present. Confucius’ burial place is under a grassy barrow surrounded by a low wall near the center of the forest; the terrace dates from the Han Dynasty. The stele above his grave, though damaged in the Cultural Revolution, reads: “Tomb of the Prince of Literary Excellence and Sagely Achievements.” It dates from 1443 and the reign of the Ming Zheng Tong emperor. Confucius’ son and grandson are buried nearby. Even the First Emperor, Qin Shi Huangdi, who tried to destroy Confucian scholars, books and ideas in the 3rd century BC, unwittingly contributed to the sanctity of the forest. Reportedly, in an attempt to eradicate the fengshui of the Confucian burial site, the emperor forced the construction of a river through the forest near Confucius’ tomb, inadvertently, according to geomancers, improving the fengshui around the tomb.

As with many imperial tombs, the forest contains a Spirit, or Divine, Road flanked by mandarins and sculpted animal forms that offer symbolic protection to the Sage’s tomb. Many of the statues date from the Song and Qing dynasties, while the road is from the Ming period (see Beijing, not sure whether you’d want a link to tombs or not).

The Forest occasionally fell in to disrepair, and was often renovated; large-scale tree plantings occurred five times and the total area of the forest was expanded at least three. The 18th century Yong Zheng period was an era of intense reconstruction, though the fortunes of the forest and the Kongs declined during the latter Qings. The most recent cycle of destruction occurred during the Cultural Revolution, especially in the late 1960s, when Red Guards robbed, defaced and destroyed much in Qufu, including Confucius’ tomb and other prominent elements of the forest. Since the late 1970s, however, much has been rebuilt, repaired or restored.

Although Confucian ideas no long have the hold as they once did, the restoration of Confucian sites throughout China has rekindled ties with its historic past. The Confucian Temple reflects of the imperial splendor of the Forbidden City and the ethical vision of the Exalted Sage. The Forest reflects the preeminence of the Kong clan throughout Chinese history. And within the pines and cypresses and other animate and inanimate elements of its past one finds a majestic beauty and a respite from the souvenir hawkers, pedicab drivers and throngs that visit the historic sites associated with the Exalted Sage.

Text by Robert D. Fiala, Concordia University, Nebraska